Briefer Notices

Briefer Notices59 Briefer Notices Prepared by Barbara L. Curtis Crosslands #188 Kennett Square, PA 19348 The annual meeting of the Friends Historical Association was held on Monday , November 14th, at the Friends Meeting House at 4th and Arch Sts., Philadelphia. More than 80 members and friends gathered for dinner, followed by the annual business meeting. The president, Barbara Curtis, thanked the retiring editor of Quaker History, Arthur J. Mekeel, for his many years of dedicated service, and reported that the Board of Directors has appointed Lyman Riley as editor, beginning with the Fall issue, 1989 (Vol. 78, No. 2). Riley, recently retired as head of Special Collections in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania , is resuming the position of editor of Quaker History which he held for several years in the early seventies. It was also announced that because of rising costs the Board of Directors has reluctantly decided to increase the cost of membership, which includes two issues of the magazine, to $15.00 per annum. The address of the evening was delivered by Craig Horle, currently editing The Biographical Dictionary ofPennsylvania Legislators to 1800 for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. His topic was "The Writing of Quaker History: Myth or Truth." At the seventh biennial meeting of the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists held at Pickering College, Newmarket, Ont., Canada, as noted in the previous issue of Quaker History, the following papers were presented: Howard Beeth: Quaker Historiography Enters Stage Three. David Holden: Sacrilege, Heresy and Division in the History of Friends. Michael Birkel: The Cross in the Thought of John Woolman. Richard K. MacMaster: Relief and Reconciliation in South Africa in the Era of the Boer War. Charles and Mary G. Carpenter: Nantucket Quakers, Their Lifestyles and Their Decorative Arts. T. D. S. Bassett: What Papers Shall We Save? Arthur Roberts: The Papers of John Frederick Hanson. Malcolm Thomas: The Friends House (London) Library Collection. Edwin Bronner: Was There a Group of Moderates in London Yearly Meeting, 1867-1872? Laura Gordon: Religious Beliefs and Shared Experiences. Business and Social Practices and the Community of Bristol Quakers, 1790-1860. Thomas Socknat: The role of Quakers in the Canadian Peace Movement. It is with sadness that we report the death of Willard Heiss on August 10, 1988 in Indianapolis, IN. Born in Randolph County, IN., February 10, 1921, the son of Calvin and Loretta (Thornburg) Heiss, he was deeply influenced by his maternal grandparents who were among the last Conservative Friends in that part of the state. As Thomas Hamm reports, Heiss was a founding member of Lanthorne Monthly Meeting in Indianapolis and served for many years as its clerk. He was widely acknowledged as perhaps the nation's leading authority on Quaker genealogy and family history. Among his many publications were seven volumes ofAbstracts ofthe Records ofthe Society ofFriends in Indiana. 60Quaker History In 1946 he married Virginia Reichenbach who survives, along with their son Stephen and three grandchildren. Marty Walton, general secretary of the Friends General Conference, reports that the Friends' testimony of non-violence received unexpected notice in Moscow this spring. The occasion of the meeting of President Reagan with General Secretary Gorbachev at the Kremlin was marked by a state dinner when President Reagan, in his toast to Gorbachev, spoke of the movie "The Friendly Persuasion" which is based on the novel by Jessamyn West about a Quaker family's response to the American Civil War. ...